THE LOST PRINCESS : EPISODES 21-30
EPISODE 25
*At the restaurant*
“Thank you” she Said again as Max pulled out the chair for her to sit down
“You are welcome and we’re just getting started” he whispered.
“What should we order? Chinese? American?” He asked.
“Oh” she rolled her eyes “Have eaten those stuff all my life and am tired get me some African delicacies”.
“Ok then” he smiled and signalled to the waiter.
Within a few minutes series of African delicacies was placed in front of her.
“Woah Max you are so great” she flushed.
“This is African salads” he said pointing to a plate
“This is pepper soup ganished with cow skin and assorted meat”
He said pointing to another plate
“This is what we call suya like barbecued meat. This is barbecued fish ganished with Irish potatoes. And lastly this is palm wine”.
“Woah this is so enormous and am going to taste everything here”.
“Yeah it’s all for you”.
“Woah this is so delicious” she exclaimed happily stuffing some meat into her mouth.
“Easy babe” he laughed.
“Gosh Max you had this instock for me and you didn’t tell me to stop stuffing my face with ice cream” she glared.
“Am sorry baby” he laughed.
“What do you call this sweet whitish liquid?” She inquired.
“It’s called palm wine, it’s tapped from special palm trees” he replied.
“Special palm trees as how?” She asked confused.
“There are different species of palm trees, one grown for it’s nuts, one producing coconut and one for tapping wine”.
“Woah” she exclaimed “please tell me more”.
“You want me to go more into culture”.
“Please tell me while I savour this moment” she begged.
“Palm tree. This tree is riches it self, like I said earlier it consists of three different species. The one grown mainly for palm wine”.
“Is it this one am drinking?” She asked.
“Nope you can’t even drink a cup of that and still be talking, as stated earlier the one producing palm wine, another is grown mainly for palm nuts.
This for palm nuts has many uses. The one one grown mainly for it to produce coconut”.
“Woah is there any special thing to know about this tree”.
“Yes it’s very special let talk about the one grown for it nuts, scratch that this palm tree am talking about is the main money” he smiled.
“How?”
“This palm tree produces palm nuts which palm oil and veggies oil is extracted from, it’s not only that palm wine is also tapped from this tree. It’s this tree that produces the type of palm wine you are drinking”.
“Hmm”
“This same palm tree it leaves can be used as broom”.
“Wait how?”.
“Thank you, the leaves are flustered in a way that it is thick and has many fingers so when this leaves are cut this fingers are extracted from each leaves and sharpened in a smooth way.
A bunch of this fingers is what we call broom. You would think that’s all isn’t it?” He asked and she nodded.
“But no the leaves can be made as roofings in the olden days before the invention of blocks and cement, our fore father’s lived in mud and brick houses. These houses are called huts. now you would ask me if they build houses won’t they have a roofing to cover from rain and sun shine.
This is where the palm leaves came into the picture it’s used to roof this mud houses even till today if you go to the beach and some let say relaxation center you will still find this type of building, well just exclude the mud part but if you go to the village you will probably find it there”.
“Woah I can’t wait to see this beautiful tree” she exclaimed.
“Well it’s because indeed cause anything from nature is beautiful and please slow down on the intake of Palm wine you wouldn’t want to end up drunk”.
“Ok”she smiled.
“Ann”
“Huh”
“Why are you not touching the African salads”.
“I don’t know” she shrugged.
“Eat it it’s really delicious”.
“Oh ok but is that all about the tree am really enjoying what you are sharing with me”.
“Well then let’s continue I don’t want to bore you with it”.
“Bored? She scoffed “am far from it darling”.
“Darling? I love it anyways let’s move to the palm nuts don’t forget we are still talking about a single specie”.
“After harvesting the palm nuts bunch from the tree, the palm nuts are extracted from each bunch, this is taken to the oil mill where palm oil is extracted from the nuts the process which I will not like to explain now.
When the oil is extracted from the nuts it gives wastes the first one is Oguso which I can probably call the shaft.
This shaft has it own uses it is used for hastening or lighting fire in the sense that if you want to cook through the local way and local way I mean making use of fire wood.
The second part of the waste is the palm kernel after extracting the oil this is the solid thing the shaft holding the oil covered
This palm kernel is enclosed by this hard thing, pardon me I don’t know the name.
Oil can also be extracted from it that’s the palm kernel. After the oil has been extracted the hard pannel there can also be used to hasten or light fire”.
“How?” She asked yet again
“Research had it that it burns just like gas. Bend closer let me tell you the secret my grandfather told me”.
Ann bought her head closer and he kssed her hungrily
“Yucks” she laughed “is this what your grandfather told you?”.
“Well nope just can’t help it, he told me that many years ago electricity was used for the production of cement.
It is a major factor as cement needs very high amount of heat as it’s fried just like garri (cassava flakes).
This country has been known to always have problem with electricity so this made them to switch to gas.
But now the cost of gas is so exorbitant to purchase so they switch to this hard pannel, the oil palm is enclosed to they get it in large quantities burn it and use it to fry the cement.
This hard pannel can also be grinded to smooth, blend and mixed with cement to lay the foundation of a building, research had it that it last longer than the one layed with sand.
Some beer parlours instead of cementing or plastering or concreting their floors they tend to grace the soil with this hard pallet reason being that it absorbs erosion”
“What is the third one?” She asked sleepily.
“The third one is that let go home” he replied..
“No you must tell me the third one” she argued.
“Oh ok the third one is the coconut tree that produces Coconut we eat” he explained.
Only for him to raise up his head to find her head hanged on one side.. She had fallen asleep.
He carried her in a bridal style while she smuggled close to him.
He took her to the car and zoom off. Ann kept uttering nonsense on how she’s gonna beat Bella with this piece of information she had.
Max took her to his main house this time,he carried her from the car and dropped her gently on the bed.
He removes her shoes and clothes then he went to shower and he joined her on the bed while placing her head on his chest.
Both slept off peacefully till the following morning
THE LOST PRINCESS : EPISODES 21-30
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